The Cross The Weekly : What makes you get up in the morning?
Anteo Guillot: Apart from the desire to eat a good pain au chocolat, it’s my job that helps me get out of bed. I have the chance to exercise it in a structure on a human scale, which I think is useful and forward-looking. Our team provides information on the position and trajectory of objects in orbit. The goal is to protect the movement of satellites and to fight against space pollution, a phenomenon that endangers humanity as it relies today on the Internet, GPS…
Applying to industry groups was a possibility. But I would have been the cog in a mechanism that is beyond me and whose values I do not share. Some days are more motivating than others. The beginning and the rendering of a project are exhilarating phases in computer development. Between the two, we sometimes find ourselves in long tunnels of doubt, without knowing if and when we will find the exit.
At work, how is it going?
A. G. : GOOD ! And better and better. Share my space is a young start-up. At first, we worked long hours, with camping chairs and trestle doors as desks. Today, the project is perpetuated and everyone finds their place in the company. Mine has its quirks. I collect data, I put them in the database so that my colleagues or our customers can use them easily. Like the ” crashes ” and the ” failures » (failures and technical problems) punctuate computer life, I never get bored. On the other hand, this job has made my mind almost robotic. I now analyze the world through constants (“as long as”) and conditions (“if/then”). Chance no longer has much place in my life.
Who do you trust?
A. G. : In my family, in my close friends. I also rely on the skills and vision of my boss, a doctor in plasma physics, whom I consider a genius. I am convinced by the mathematical language. It is the most direct and transparent relationship one can have with nature. But I remain turned towards the other. Some of my friends fit the cliché of the introverted developer. The code is their whole life. So much so that they offer themselves RAM (from RAM, editor’s note) as a birthday present. Me, I go out, I skate and I play music. I chose this job to understand how a world that today relies on computers works, not to live through a screen.
A scene that marked you?
A. G. : It was January 8, 2021. With a friend, we were skating in the streets of Paris when I learned about the deployment of the James Webb telescope. You have to imagine the technical prowess. It is a device located 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth, motionless because precisely on the point where the gravity between the Sun, the Earth and the Moon is canceled. This telescope detects the light of the first galaxies, it studies the formation of stars and searches for possible traces of life on exoplanets. For me, it was a major step forward for humanity: we stopped at a bar to celebrate. But like many scientific news, it did not take up much space in the mainstream press (1).
Something that would change your life right now?
A. G. : A house by the sea. My family is half-Corsican, half-English. The ocean would bring the serenity that my life as a city coder lacks. In the morning, I leave a small apartment in the suburbs. In the RER, I meet a horde of people who don’t want to be there. Then I spend my day in front of a computer. So I take countless cigarette breaks. My fatigue is mental. I miss the time when I fell asleep exhausted after an ice hockey game. My apprenticeship at Share my space is coming to an end. I’m going to work out in the mountains of Canada for a few months before returning to the business. I need to breathe.
And for tomorrow, an idea to change the world?
A. G. : The key, in my opinion, is education. Instead of pouring knowledge into children sitting in classrooms for hours on end, I think we would benefit from making them actors in their lives. I had the chance to know the school in England. The students moved freely in the classroom. We had sex education classes twice a week and sports every day. The uniform also avoids certain social discriminations. It allows you to develop your personality through your way of thinking rather than through the image you send back. One Wednesday a month, you could choose your outfit. I remember everyone dressed up. I know that in France, we associate the uniform with a militaristic vision of education. But I think it’s liberating.
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Anteo Guillot is a 26-year-old coder and skateboarder. He learned computer development at school 42, founded by Xavier Niel, which relies on autonomy and practice. Some of his comrades were hired at the end of their first internship. Anteo wanted to complete his apprenticeship training at Share my space, a start-up that works to clean up space.
If his job offers him infinite possibilities, he nevertheless finds a confining side to it. Between his apartment, transport and his PC, Anteo has the impression of moving from one box to another. He longs for more freedom. Recently, he lets his hair grow: enough to keep him warm during his very next trip to Canada.